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AWOL Vice Chair adopts 13 year-old orphan

By Ahmed Sahid Nasralla (De Monk)

Jenneh Maringa was the lead cast in a skit titled ‘The Wicked Step Mother’ performed by her Ansarul Islamic Primary School last Sunday at this year’s AWOL annual feeding and awards programme for school children at Gondama, Tikonko Chiefdom, Bo District, but little did she realize that some plays you act have a magical way of turning into reality.

In the skit, the 13 year-old Class VI pupil was living with her step mother who found delight in sending Jenneh out to sell ground nuts rather than urging her to be in school. So Jenneh would go out reluctantly to sell while her friends were in school. She longed for someone to prevail on her step mother to allow her to go to school, but Jenneh would sell and sell and eventually dropped out of school.

SOME DREAMS COME TRUE: Jenneh couldn’t believe her dream has come true; she now has someone she can call mother

Jenneh’s fortune began to show in real life when, in one of her petty trading escapades, the audience on the high table responded to her cry of “Please buy my ground nuts! Please buy my ground nuts!” by dropping monies on her ground nut bowl.

And her dream of staying in school came through when the Vice Chairperson of AWOL, Yabome Lansana, who shed tears during the skit, announced that Jenneh would from then on be her daughter and would meet all responsibilities that go with that.

“From today consider me your mother,” said Madam Lansana, followed by loud roar of applause from the crowded hall. “You’ll never have to sell on the streets again; instead you will be in school and get education.”

In real life Jenneh Maringa is an orphan staying with a guardian that is blind. She lost her parents when she was just a kid, according to her Head Teacher.

When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said she wanted to become a doctor but was too shy to say why. She thanked Madam Lansana and her teachers for giving her the opportunity to feature in the skit.